Publications

Quantifying ecosystem services can provide information to justify conservation and restoration decisions so as to allocate limited resources effectively. Consequently, decision makers and public typically ask for simple and understandable information with confidence regarding the availability of the services and the probable economic value. Here, we compiled published information on...

No abstract available.

The wildlife management institution has been transforming to ensure relevance and positive conservation outcomes into the future. Continuous improvement of decision making is one aspect of this transformation, but many obstacles hinder systematic approaches to decision making. One can point to examples of formal decision science applications by state and federal agencies in the United...

The US Fish and Wildlife Service has initiated a re-envisioned approach for providing decision makers with the best available science and synthesis of that information, called the Species Status Assessment (SSA), for endangered species decision making. The SSA report is a descriptive document that provides decision makers with an assessment of a species’ current status and predicted...

Although it is widely accepted that juvenile turtles experience high levels of predation, such events are rarely observed, providing limited evidence regarding predator identities and how juvenile habitat selection and availability of sensory cues to predators affects predation risk. We placed three-dimensional printed models resembling juvenile box turtles (Terrapene carolina) across...

Generating public interest in fish and their biology is often challenging. Many aquatic species are cryptic and largely invisible to the public. Therefore, increasing public awareness of cryptic fishes and elevating their visibility to broad audiences requires innovation. Inexpensive technological advancements now provide fisheries biologists, managers, and researchers with means never...

Winter drawdowns in flood control reservoirs create expansive mudflats that lack the vegetation typical of littoral zones, which reduces the amount of structure available for fish habitat. This study investigated the feasibility of establishing agricultural plantings as a management action to ameliorate mudflats by providing structural cover following reservoir refilling. We tested cool...

Pinnipeds are commonly monitored using aerial photographic surveys at land- or ice-based sites, where animals come ashore for resting, pupping, molting, and to avoid predators. Although these counts form the basis for monitoring population change over time, they do not provide information regarding where animals occur in the water, which is often of management and conservation interest...

Submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) thrives across the estuarine salinity gradient providing valuable ecosystem services. Within the saline portion of estuaries, seagrass areas are frequently cited as hotspots for their role in capturing and retaining organic carbon (Corg). Non-seagrass SAV, located in the fresh to brackish estuarine areas, may also retain significant soil Corg, yet their...

Intermittent rivers are becoming more ecologically stressed worldwide. Flow cessation occurs naturally and spatiotemporally in these systems and anthropogenic activities such as wastewater discharges can have considerable impacts. Public entities mostly monitor water quality in permanent streams, leading to insufficient monitoring of intermittent streams and consequently to their...

Groundwater influences stream environments in numerous ways including structuring biotic assemblages. However, associations between groundwater influence and warmwater fish assemblages are under-studied. We examined relationships between groundwater contribution, population size, and total length (TL) for 5 warmwater fishes at 32 stream reaches in the Ozark Highlands ecoregion. When we...

For vector-borne diseases, the abundance and competency of different vector species and their host preferences will impact the transfer of pathogens among hosts. Sylvatic plague is a lethal disease caused by the primarily flea-borne bacterium Yersinia pestis. Sylvatic plague was introduced into the western United States in the early 1900s and impacts many species of rodents. Plague may...